“[Tiling] poses problems down the road with health inspections,” McCluskey explained on Tuesday night, and then reiterated to the MMI on Thursday morning. Broken tiles in kitchen areas in particular can pose problems, she said, explaining the want for the epoxy flooring.

“It’s easier to clean,” she said. “It’s easier to maintain. This is a better long-term maintenance issue.”

Two bids came in on the project.

The first of these bids was through Brick City Painting and Drywall, at a total amount of $43,000 ($14,200 for MMS and $28,800 for East Park).

BC estimated that they would have to remove 300 square feet of flooring at the middle school, at a rate of $12 per square foot. Installing the new flooring at that same square footage would cost the company $35.33, the bid notes. Removal takes up $3,600 of the bid, while installation takes up $10,600.

Over at East Park, the cost for removal (estimating 560 square feet of floor space) would be $13.57 per. Installation would run the district $37.86 per square foot. It would cost the district $7,600 for removal, and another $21,200 for installation of the epoxy flooring.

The second of the bids came through Desco Coating, Inc., in the initial amount of $18,809 ($8,278 for MMS and $10,531 for East Park).

At the middle school, Desco submitted a $5 per square foot removal bid on 288 square feet of floor space ($1,469, total). Installation or 384 square feet would run the district $6,809, or $17.38 per square foot.

East Park’s removal bid was for $3.75 per square foot (at a 450 square foot estimate). That leaves the district looking at $1,722 for removal. At a $14.74 per bid on the 586 square feet in the east park kitchen, Desco’s bid for installation came in at $8,809.

Desco is currently doing floor work at the Moberly High School, McCluskey said, and gave the district the option to go with a Cremona TG surface — the same being installed at the high school — over the Cremona DB surface being requested in the bid, for continuity’s sake. To do so, however, it would bump up their bid price by another $412 at the middle school and another $628 at East Park, taking the final bid to $19,849 — still nearly $9,000 less than the BC bid.

The board packet notes that when the district contacted Brick City to inquire as to why their bid was drastically higher than Desco’s, the company noted that “the substrate prep work would have to sub out since [they do] not have the equipment [required to do the job that the district is requesting].” Also, installation and labor would be at a time-and-a-half rate, BC noted, because they are “so busy.”

The board took the measure to a vote and unanimously approved the bid presented by Desco Coating, including the upgrade to the Cremona TG surface, 7-0.

McCluskey said that she hopes that the flooring project will begin “within the next 30 days.”

“If I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d replace all of the asphalt in the district,” McCluskey said Tuesday night, during discussions for the second bid on the night — one for a coat sealing machine for the district.

“[In the past,] we have been borrowing equipment,” McCluskey said. That was from Randolph County, it was noted in the meeting. McCluskey said that she wanted the district to be able to independently use their own equipment whenever they needed it, and not whenever it was convenient for other entities.

“Everyone is becoming so busy with additional work,” she said. “It’s time we had our own equipment.”

The district had one machine up for vote — a brand new, 700-gallon Seal-Rite brand, with a final asking price of $17,225.

When asked if the district had a person on staff who was capable of operating the equipment, or if they would also have to train someone on top of the new purchase, McCluskey said that the district already has employees who were able to run this kind of machinery on staff, so no additional training would be needed.

“This is the same equipment we’ve used for the last couple year,” she said.

The board asked if the district should just go ahead and look into getting a striping machine for the district, as well, while they are looking at seal coating machines.

“We usually hire that out,” McCluskey explained. She did note, however, that such could be an item that the district could look into in the future, if they so chose.

When put up for vote, the motion for approval again saw no opposition. It passed, 7-0.

McCluskey told the MMI on Thursday morning that MPS Director of Maintenance Tim Wetrich had contacted Seal-Rite on Wednesday to order the apparatus “in hopes of getting it on-site as soon as possible.”

McCluskey said that the district does their seal coating projects in the summer, when their parking lots receive less traffic, anywhere from the end of June through the final days of July, depending upon summer school dates and locations, as well as child-feeding program locations.